Physis Capital plans to begin investing in promising startups by Oct

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June 6, 2022

According to a top official, venture capital fund Physis Capital expects to close its first round of funding of at least $10-15 million from investors in the next four months, and to reach its goal of $50 million in a year, while capital deployment into promising startups could begin as early as October this year.

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), a CXO-driven angel investing platform, unveiled its fund Physis Capital earlier this year to invest in firms seeking pre-Series A to Series B capital.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India recently gave its clearance to the fund, which wants to establish a portfolio of 15-20 startups with a minimum ticket size of USD 2 million.

“Physis Capital may be new, but not angel investment platform IPV. We have proven ourselves over the last four years…and that is where commitments have come in for Physis Capital,” Ankur Mittal, Partner, Physis Capital, said.

The new fund will have a corpus of $50 million with a greenshoe option of another USD 25 million. It will actively invest in vertical commerce, consumer tech, social/content creator, business to business SaaS (Software as a Service) and enterprise tech.

Physis Capital will also invest in companies in the IPV portfolio. As much as 50 per cent of the fund size will be deployed to startups within the IPV portfolio.

“While at IPV, we typically do seed to pre-series A (round), in case of Physis Capital we will be writing pre-series A to Series B cheques,” he said.

According to Mittal, many family offices and prominent investors have shown interest in Physis Capital.

“We are confident we will be able to close the initial amount in about four months, primarily because of some active inbound interest already received,” Mittal informed.

The first milestone will be to close a transaction worth around USD 10 to 15 million. Physis Capital is looking for profitable investment possibilities, and some investors have already committed.

“They agree that these are great opportunities. So we may actually go for the first close in about four months instead of typical 6-7 months’ time. That’s what we are targeting,” Mittal said, adding that while more clarity will emerge in the next few weeks, the fund expects to start deployment of capital latest by October this year.

“However, there are certain businesses we will avoid. We don’t want to fund capex-heavy businesses or businesses which don’t have positive unit economics for a long term,” he clarified.

Companies focused on social content would be an area of interest so far as capital deployment is concerned. “…because we still believe that there’s a lot of scope in social content yet to be seen, especially in India. And some of the startups in that space have done very well,” Mittal explained.

The total amount of $50 million will be deployed by Physis Capital in the next three years.

Tech Mahindra launches technology development centre in Oman

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June 6, 2022

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Tech Mahindra Ltd. inaugurated an innovation and technology development centre, in Muscat, Oman.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), big data & analytics, cloud, and 5G technologies, the centre will serve telecommunications, oil and gas, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), energy & utilities, and public sectors.

This is in accordance with Tech Mahindra’s commitment to invest in local talent’s upskilling and reskilling to take on projects in Oman and worldwide.

“I believe the vision of Oman based on the pillars of ‘People and Society’, ‘Economy and Development’, and ‘Governance and Institutional Performance’ will transform and enhance the country’s economy. Tech Mahindra is pleased to play a part in this strategic narrative and support in building a resilient tomorrow for Oman, that thrives on growth & innovation, with a keen focus on empowering women,” said CP Gurnani, managing director and chief executive, Tech Mahindra.

“As a global organisation, we are committed to honing talent across geographies, and our initiatives have been warmly embraced in Oman. This innovation and development centre will grow Omani talent in the technology industry and will enable us to leverage it for markets globally,” Gurnani added.

Tech Mahindra already has a significant footprint in Oman, and the recently opened research and development centre is just another step in contributing to the country’s development by leveraging its youthful talent, according to Ram Ramachandran, Tech Mahindra’s head of the Middle East and Africa.

Tech Mahindra also unveiled Maker’s Lab, a research and development unit within the centre that would focus on developing IPs, solutions, and services that harness the power of technology to allow digital transformation, smart enterprise solutions, cloud transformation, big data, and analytics.

NBFCs see demand rising for used-vehicle financing

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June 6, 2022

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NBFCs are seeing an increase in demand for used vehicle finance due to Covid. The pandemic-driven preference for owning second and third cars in households, two-wheeler owners upgrading to preowned vehicles, and the reduced cost of used vehicles are key factors for the surge in demand for used vehicles. NBFCs that offer money to those who want to buy used cars expect tremendous growth this year.

Cholamandalam Investments & Finance (Chola), one of the leading players in the used vehicle financing industry, has topped the list in vehicle finance for three years in a row since FY20, with loans for used cars.

While used car finance accounted for 27% of all financing in FY21 and FY22, increasing 1% from FY20, it only accounted for 13% in FY19. Compared to the previous quarter, the number of used vehicles financed increased by 17,000 vehicles to roughly 57,000 in Q4 FY22.

Following Covid, Sundaram Finance expects the segment to develop at a 10-15% rate each year. According to Tata Capital Financial Services (TCFSL), the used car lending sector has a lot of room for expansion, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Rajiv Lochan, MD, Sundaram Finance, said, “Looking ahead, we see the used vehicle business growing much faster for us. Our target is to achieve 30% share of our overall disbursements from the used vehicles segment over the next three years.”

ZFW Dark Stores bags $1.2mn in seed round from Riso Capital, SEA Fund, & strategic angels

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June 3, 2022

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ZFW Dark Stores, a full-stack fulfillment technology platform for e-commerce brands, announced that it had raised a USD 1.2 million seed round from Riso Capital, SEA Fund, Lead Fund, and a clutch of marquee founder-angels.

New investors also include Middle East conglomerate Qudrah National Holdings, Archana Priyadarshini (GP, Point One Capital), South Asia Technology Partners, Long Tail Ventures, Jasminder Gulati (Founder, NowFloats; acquired by Reliance), and founders of India’s fastest-growing brands like The Mom’s Co (Mohit Sadaani), Rage Coffee (Bharat Sethi), Neeman’s (Amar Chhabra), Jimmy’s Cocktails (Ankur Bhatia), Letsbuy.com (Amanpreet Bajaj), Thrive (Karan Chechani and Dhruv Dewan), Almo (Abhishek Shah), and Aman Arora (Keventers) among other angels. Existing investors like ice.vc, Mumbai Angels, & Arjun Vaidya (Founder, Dr. Vaidya’s) participated in the round.

The Delhi-based startup plans to use the funding to expand its dark store operations across India, streamline hiring, and expand its technological capabilities to provide a seamless delivery experience. It previously received USD 415,000 in pre-seed funding from Indvest Family Office, Runwal Group, Epigamia, Beardo, The Face Shop, NOTO, etc.

Through its dark stores and last-mile deliveries across India, ZFW Dark Stores enables D2C brands to fulfill orders to clients in 30 minutes, 2 hours, and on the same day.

Rage Coffee, Clinikally, Epigamia, Jimmy’s Cocktails, HUL, Havmor Ice Cream, and Vadilal are among the 150+ dark stores operated by the startup, which was created in 2021 by cloud kitchen entrepreneur Madhav Kasturia.

Commenting on the round announcement, ZFW Dark Stores founder Madhav Kasturia said, “Our technology platform empowers new-age brands that want to sell through their own channels and offer a superior Amazon-like Same-Day Delivery experience to customers: without breaking the bank or worrying about risks associated with over-dependence on E-commerce platforms (low margins, lack of control, and data). Solving for pain points in fulfilment like high RTOs, low customer delight, and margins is at the core of what we do. We’re humbled to welcome new investors and especially enjoy the continued confidence of so many D2C founders- some of whom first joined us as customers & then doubled down on our mission as angels.”

With rising online shoppers, acquisition costs, and evolving brand loyalties in post-Covid E-commerce, brands need to be closer to customers than ever before, with robust technology and infrastructure to meet demand.

ZFW Dark Stores plans to expand to 10 cities across India by the end of 2022 as part of its next phase.

Citigroup takes 4.20 lakh sq ft workspace in Chennai and Pune

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June 3, 2022

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US-based bank Citigroup Inc announced on Thursday the opening of two state-of-the-art workspaces in Chennai and Pune as part of its Citi Solution Centres network, which would help the bank better serve its global clients. For institutional clients and personal banking and wealth management businesses, the Chennai and Pune offices provide technology, operations, analytics, finance, risk, and allied services.

“The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified incremental spaces, spread across 4.20 lakh sq ft at the existing locations at DLF Cybercity Chennai and EON IT Park, Pune would augment the capacity to serve global client of Citi,” a company statement said here.

Citi India Chief Executive Officer Ashu Khullar, Chief Information Officer, and Head of Operations and Technology (Asia Pacific), Stacey N Lacy, inaugurated the facilities in the presence of senior officials.

“The augmented workspaces will complement the existing facilities as we scale up to support over 4,000 additional seats. This will drive forward Citi’s digital strategy, delivering market-leading digital banking products and superior client experiences,” Khullar said.

According to Lacy, “the expansion of our Citi Solution Centre premises in India signals our commitment to hire the best talent as our businesses pursue growth and work with clients in the digital age.”

“We are focused on developing the next generation of talent to further innovate, leverage new skills and deliver the best of Citi to our clients,” Lacy said.

The release said Citi has similar Citi Solution Centres in Bengaluru, Gurugram, and Mumbai.

Google to merge Duo, Meet into a single platform

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June 2, 2022

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Google has announced that it plans to merge its two video calling applications, Duo and Meet, into a single platform. The company stated that it had invested heavily in Google Duo and Google Meet to assist users who rely on our technology for video calls and meetings.

“In the coming weeks, we are adding all the Google Meet features to the Duo app, so users can easily schedule a video meeting at a time that works for everyone or continue using video calling to instantly connect with a person or group,” the company said in a statement.

“Later this year, we will rename the Duo app to Google Meet, our single video communications service across Google that is available to everyone at no-cost,” it added.

Users will be able to use a single service for video calling and meetings with people across their lives due to this integrated experience.

For customers who use Duo as their cross-platform video calling software service, the business has also added additional capabilities such as group calls for up to 32 people, the addition of doodles, and video calling on tablets, foldables, smart devices, and TVs.

The company claimed it had improved quality and reliability to keep meetings safe and productive while introducing new moderation controls.

SaaS firm Kovai.co charts product-led growth strategy for unicorn status

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June 2, 2022

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Kovai.co, the Software as a Service (SaaS) firm aims for unicorn status as it pursues a product-led growth path, said Saravana Kumar, the founder, and CEO of Kovai.co.

With a limited product portfolio, Kumar said the firm is working on a customer success product, one of the fastest-growing product segments in SaaS, and is due out this year.

“We see huge potential for this product. On its own, it can reach $50 million annual revenue,” he said. He estimated Kovai.co to reach unicorn status, a privately held company with a valuation of $1 billion or more, by 2030.

The London-based firm began by developing products for the Microsoft ecosystem, such as software for the technology giant’s Azure cloud platform, but has now expanded to develop standalone products in areas such as knowledge base software for enterprise products.

Kovai.co embarked on a consolidation drive to integrate some of its products under its flagship BizTalk360, primarily to focus on key markets.

The 11-year-old company, the Tamil name of the city – Coimbatore – from where it recruits the majority of its key personnel, reached $10 million in annual recurring revenue in 2020 and continues to expand rapidly.

The company’s impending entry into the customer success area will pit it against US-based unicorns like Gainsight and Totango, who have already made significant inroads.

Inquiries have been rising as the customer success industry becomes more widely known.

According to Gartner Research, inquiries for Customer Success Management platforms increased by 88% last year.

Customer success is a relatively recent segment of the SaaS industry.

It allows software firms to track usage, ease of use, the amount to which features and functionalities are used, and insights into why customers stop buying the product.

“It’s a pretty early-stage market. Worldwide, there are about 10-15 companies in the market,” said Kumar.

SaaS businesses have recently seen a correction in valuations, which Kumar believes can only benefit the industry in the long run by forcing a return to fundamentals and time-tested growth strategies.

SaaS enterprises have the potential to accomplish big revenue and valuation milestones on their own due to their great operating efficiencies and growth prospects, he added.

OYO adds more than 1250 new corporates since March 2022

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June 1, 2022

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Since March 2022, OYO has added over 1250 corporates, indicating that business travel in India is gradually recovering. Small and medium businesses, conventional business houses & conglomerates, startups, travel management organizations, and film production companies, which have recently emerged as a key customer category for OYO, are leading the recovery.

Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Delhi are among the top cities searched and booked by businesses. As more people from this group opt for physical interactions, which is still a key factor for building their business, small and medium firms continue to contribute considerably to business travel reservations.

Since January 2021, OYO’s Business Accelerator division has served approximately 6600 corporate clients.

Customers with corporate tie-ups get curated stay options, strong personalized customer service, integration with their accounting system, and the ability to book a room via OYO’s app or website.

Domestic corporate travel is one of OYO’s key emphasis areas. However, intermittent disruptions have resulted in suppressed or inconsistent booking patterns since the pandemic. Companies have also benefited from OYO’s recent focus on its mid to premium sector brand categories Townhouse Oak, Townhouse, 5 by OYO, and 4 by OYO.

Commenting on the growth in corporate travel, Ankit Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, OYO, India said “The appetite for business travel has returned strongly since the frequent change in travel restrictions has ebbed, making travel planning for business trips more certain and predictable.. For a lot of our corporate customers, conducting business over virtual meetings was a stop gap and sub-optimal solution. Such customers are leading the business travel revival. Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions are the other key use cases fueling the growth of business travel”.

OYO has engaged with more than 2800 offline travel agents since January 2021.

Aditya Birla Group forays into direct to consumer business, launches a new firm TMRW

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June 1, 2022

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Aditya Birla Group has announced the launch of TMRW, a new direct-to-consumer business that will acquire and incubate 30 brands over the next three years. Multiple entrepreneurs will be able to work together on a synergistic platform with common capabilities as part of the venture.

The company has appointed ex-Facebook and Bain executive Prashanth Aluru as the CEO and co-founder to lead the build-out of this new venture.

“This venture has the potential to become a significant growth engine by tapping into the new wave of entrepreneurial energy in India. With the launch of this venture, we intend to double down on our ongoing program of strategically attracting new pools of capital that are seeking investment in high-growth businesses,” Ashish Dikshit, MD of ABFRL, said.

ABFRL stated that it would create a separate firm to enter the direct-to-consumer (D2C) market as part of its ambition to build a portfolio of new-age, digital brands across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle categories. D2C brands generate the majority of their revenue or acquire most of their customers through direct-to-consumer online channels or those that began with an online-first distribution model before expanding into other channels.

The company, which sells clothing and accessories from names such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, and Peter England, has announced that it will incubate and acquire emerging brands.

According to Tracxn, a market intelligence provider of private company data, around 590 new D2C enterprises have entered the Indian market in the last three years, raising Rs 6,700 crore. According to ABFRL, the D2C market opportunity in India is anticipated to be worth $100 billion by 2025.

Digital asset management platform Liminal bags $4.7mn funding led by Elevation Capital

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June 1, 2022

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Liminal, a digital asset management platform, has secured $4.7 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital and includes notable investors such as crypto fund LD Capital, Woodstock, and Nexus Ventures.

According to the company, the fund will be used to hire more employees and develop new products.

Founded in 2021 by Mahin Gupta, Liminal offers wallet architecture to help secure digital assets across different blockchains.

“With Liminal, we solve the very real problem of securing and scaling digital assets where users have to use different wallets and infrastructure for different protocols,” Gupta said in a statement.

The plug-and-play platform helps exchanges by reducing manual operations by 90% and saving hours of manual refilling.

“Safe custody of digital assets is a key challenge faced by businesses and institutional investors, and custodians like Liminal will play a big role in facilitating the mass adoption of digital assets and Web3,” the company said.

Liminal claimed to have processed over $2.5 billion in transactions in one year, with $400 million in automated transactions. It claimed to have assets worth roughly $50 million under protection.

Liminal’s automated wallet solution makes managing workflows across numerous blockchain protocols easier for crypto-native businesses, SMEs, and Web3 startups.

According to the statement, it helps companies, including exchanges, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds, scales their digital asset operations safely.

Liminal’s clients include ZebPay, DIFX, and Flitpay, and the company is now focusing on expanding in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

“Rapid adoption of digital assets is going to be driven by multiple new-age crypto businesses and institutions…These businesses are increasingly demanding plug-and-play custody solutions that are built taking their unique needs into account,” said Vaas Bhaskar, principal at Elevation Capital.

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